7.10.13

I know it's been quiet on the blogging front lately, but something ruffled my feathers and I'm going to rant about it. My apologies if my ranting bugs anyone, but honestly I'm going to rant anyways, like it or no.

A friend of mine shared a well-meaning link on their facebook wall this evening. I got annoyed. Here's why.

It was a link to a petition asking the Canadian government to require all Internet Providers in Canada to block all pornographic content, and that such content should only to be allowed if the particular household authorises it.

Now this is very well-meaning indeed.

I fully agree that porn as a whole is thoroughly harmful both to the viewer and to the actor. There have been several articles out of the UK in the last couple weeks showing how porn twists young minds, and the problems that it creates.

In principle, I am all for such (specific) censorship.

However - and here's where I get pissed off -

That's basically giving the government all the censorship privileges it has ever wanted. It will start with blocking the obvious sites (XXX anything), and then, oh then, they'll go after filesharing sites and torrent sites like the Pirate Bay. This was exactly what SOPA/PIPA were after. Granted, that was the States, but we've had similar attempts at censorship. And I do not like censorship of any kind.

A friend told me yesterday that they saw me as a person who's very genuine and can't stand bullshit. Well, censorship is bullshit. It allows others to decide what you should or should not see. While I'm all for No More Porn, that sets a precedent for hiding other stuff. Such as, governmental actions, for instance. Anti-WikiLeaks, if you will. So yeah, let's go all 1984 on our own selves.
Great idea.
Not.

So, I will not be signing that petition. Nor anything like it. Ever.

I might be overreacting. I'm perfectly willing to admit the possibility. But I still won't sign.